‘A once-in-a-lifetime experience’: PGA Tour journeyman paired with his two sons in Korn Ferry Tour event

By

[PHOTO: Korn Ferry Tour]

Father’s Day in the US was two months ago, but the Korn Ferry Tour’s Pinnacle Bank Championship gave a belated gift to Scott Gutschewski… or maybe tournament director Jessica Brabec and company are getting in early for next year. Either way, the PGA Tour journeyman (and three-time KFT winner) has been paired with his two sons for the opening two rounds of this week’s event at The Club at Indian Creek.

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. That’s a Gutschewski-only 9:57am group in the family’s hometown of Omaha. In the opening round, the 47-year-old was joined by progeny Luke, 21, and Trevor, 17, who earned spots in the field through a local qualifying event and a win at the Indian Creek Invitational, respectively. Luke’s a rising junior at Iowa State University and Trevor, the recent winner of the US Junior Championship, is set to play his college golf at Florida University.

“It’s rare to have three people from the same family make a tournament of this calibre,” Brabec said. “We know how much this moment means to the Gutschewski family, and we want to make sure they have the opportunity to play together. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we’re so excited to have them all playing at the Pinnacle Bank Championship.”

Scott seemed a little bit excited about the threesome, going so far as to tweet, “A lot of weeks I get paired with guys and I’m old enough to be their dad. This week, I am their dad!!!”

Like Scottie Scheffler at the Olympics, the only goal for the family is to have fun. We’re not totally sure who the family matriarch, Amy, is cheering for, but we would wager that she won’t be announcing any favourites.

The family’s scoring was decent in the first round, too. Luke’s one-over 72 trails the one-under 70s carded by his father and brother – all three handily placed as the afternoon wave tackles the course.

Scott, also known as “Gootch”, once went 10 years (or 3,626 days) between PGA Tour events. He has played 154 events on the PGA Tour over his career, more than 250 on the KFT and even finished fifth at the 2022 Barracuda Championship. And yet, this relatively random Pinnacle Bank Championship tee-time might be what he’s most proud of. It’s not every day that a golfer and his sons take over an entire grouping at a pro event.

“I thought there was a chance at some point Luke and I may kind of cross paths depending on how long I could still walk and everything,” Scott told Omaha’s CBS affiliate KMTV. “But yeah, Trevor was definitely a huge surprise.”